Brisbane tunnel moves goalposts on traffic

The owners of Brisbane’s embattled Airport Link tunnel have extended the ramp-up period to reach traffic forecasts to three years.

But the move may not save
BrisConnections
, the company that built and operates the 6.7-kilometre tunnel, from receivership.

Traffic numbers for November –the first full month of tolling – showed only 53,313 vehicles a day used the tunnel, about 82,000 short of its 135,000 target.

Last month BrisConnections went into a trading halt after it appointed insolvency and restructuring experts PPB Advisory to review its tolling, traffic forecasts and overall cost structures.

The review, set up only four months after the tunnel opened in late July, is expected to be completed by early next year.

In its original product disclosure statement in 2008, BrisConnections said traffic forecasts were expected to steadily increase to 179,276 vehicles a day after six months, 186,117 after 12 months and 195,378 after 15 months.

But in its annual report, it said it had amended its ramp-up period from 15 months to 36 months.

A spokeswoman for the company said the decision had been made because of the extended toll-free period of up to three months and a further 12 months of discounted tolls.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

“It was originally going to be one month free and then a 15-month ramp-up period but it has now been extended because of the extended discount tolling period," the spokeswoman said.

But BrisConnections has not said how the original forecasts will correspond to the new time frame.

Arup, the company that made the original traffic forecasts for the Airport Link in 2008, refused to answer questions from The Australian Financial Review about whether it stood by the forecasts in the product disclosure statement.

Aecom, which provided traffic forecasts for Brisbane’s Clem Jones tunnel, is being sued by the receivers of RiverCity Motorway for making overly optimistic forecasts.

It is also facing a class action from investors who lost money on the Clem Jones tunnel, which went into receivership less than a year after it opened in early 2010.

BrisConnections chief executive
Ray Wilson
said last month it was “early days" and he was confident the traffic numbers would improve over the first 18 months. He said the original plan was to “bleed revenue" over the first year-and-a-half to achieve traffic forecasts.

But a consortium of 10 banks, which have lent more than $3 billion to the project, moved to appoint PPB to overhaul its operation.